All European tech leaders should read the EuroStack report by the Bertelsmann Foundation: https://www.euro-stack.info/

It does an excellent job recommending realistic policies to leverage Europe's surprising (and often underappreciated) strengths, promote sovereignty in hardware & software, reduce risky foreign dependencies, and grow the economy through healthy collaboration.

#OpenSource #Sovereign #Europe

After comparing several, seems https://euro-stack.com/ is the most comprehensive. It also allows to filter by _both_ being European _and_ open source 🇪🇺🐧

The same people run https://eurostack.eu/ and also got fame delivering the https://euro-stackletter.eu/ letter to President Von der Leyen a year ago.

#OpenSource #EU #Europe #DigitalSovereignty

🐧 Univeristy student keen to gain open source skills this summer? If you or someone you know wants to contribute to #Debian with Google's sponsorship, explore the #GSoC2026 project ideas now: https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2026/Projects

Applications open until end of March! Don't miss out, look into project ideas already this weekend!

#OpenSource #FOSS

Check out VillageSQL, the newest #MySQL fork: https://villagesql.com

It's an #OpenSource venture backed by $35M from FirstMark Capital, Spark Capital, and GV (Google Ventures). It's a drop-in replacement for MySQL with an extension architecture. See their native UUID extension with efficient 16-byte storage as an example.

I posted this week about #MySQL's decline. Percona also writes in https://www.percona.com/blog/analyzing-the-heartbeat-of-the-mysql-server-a-look-at-repository-statistics/: "The overall trend since 2011 shows a sustained decline in the number of commits and a shrinking pool of unique contributors. The trendline is a clear warning that, without intervention, the general development pace is expected to slow further."

If you still use MySQL, probably time to switch..

#MySQL played a key role in the 1995-2010s Internet infrastructure. It has however declined in popularity since Oracle acquired it and many have said goodbye to it 👋👋

In 2026, anyone still using MySQL should plan to switch away from it.

➡️Read why at https://optimizedbyotto.com/post/reasons-to-stop-using-mysql/

Still using #MySQL? Stewarded by Oracle, MySQL has been in decline for years. Stop using it in 2026, especially if your care about the #opensource #FOSS methodology and not just the license.

👉 https://optimizedbyotto.com/post/reasons-to-stop-using-mysql/

Energy startups form Europe 🇪🇺 to follow:
- Donut Labs: first solid state batteries on market
- Perovskia: first perovskite solar panels on market
- Nordic Nano: soon first nano-carbon solar panels

Imagine a world where small devices run purely on ambient light and don't need any batteries, and large devices with batteries that charge in 5 minutes and last for a decade without degrading ☀️